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Eps1.0 hellofriend.mov
}} Series Premiere. is the first episode of Mr. Robot, created by Sam Esmail. The episode received an early release through online streaming services and iTunes on May 27, 2015, and premiered on June 24, 2015. Before its online release, "Hello Friend" was screened at the 2015 SXSW Film Festival, where it won an Audience Award. It later was exhibited at the Tribeca Film Festival. Plot Synopsis <@mrrobot> anti-social cybersecurity tech elliot meets mr. robot leader of hacker group fsociety. evil corp - biggest co. in the world - is hacked. is robot behind it? brb. Origin of the Title * Hello Friend (hellofriend.mov) refers to the video file left for Elliot by fsociety, which he finds when he tracks down the source of the E Corp DDoS hack. "Hello friend" are also the first words Elliot, in voice-over, says to the audience. * The extension: .mov is a video file extension, native to QuickTime. Summary Elliot, a cyber-security engineer by day and vigilante hacker by night, is recruited by a mysterious underground group to destroy the firm he's paid to protect. Elliot must decide how far he'll go to expose the forces he believes are running (and ruining) the world. (Source: USA Network) The episode begins in Ron's Coffee shop. Elliot approaches the owner, Ron, who has just entered the shop. Elliot informs Ron that after observing the traffic on Ron's network, Elliot decided to hack him. Elliot discovered that Ron had been running a child pornography website, and had been using TOR protocols to keep the servers anonymous. Ron seems shocked, and is noticeably shaken by the confrontation. Elliot has anonymously tipped off the police about Ron, and when Ron attempts to pay Elliot off, Elliot refuses because he doesn't care about money. Now Elliot thinks he's being followed. He starts to think that he should have gone to his friend Angela's birthday instead of confronting Ron. On the subway a pair of men in suits look over at him suspiciously. Elliot enters the Allsafe Cybersecurity offices, where he works as a cybersecurity engineer. Before he can reach his desk, he hears his boss, Gideon call him into his office. One of their client companies, E Corp, has been attacked again, and they are sending a group to hear exactly what happened during the attack. Elliot identifies a file labeled fsociety00.dat, along with a text file asking him to leave the malware he finds hidden on E Corp's server. Mr. Robot, the mysterious leader of the hacker group fsociety, contacts Elliot on the subway. Fsociety plans a digital revolution by deleting all debt records and Elliot is invited to join their cause. He is intrigued and eventually agrees. (Source: Mr. Robot (TV series) Wikipedia) Episode Notes * Elliot's drug of choice is morphine, a highly addictive Schedule II opiate, legally dispensed by prescription as a powerful pain killer. It is also used to make illegal street opiates, including heroin and oxycodone. To avoid withdrawal symptoms, Elliot takes suboxone, a synthetic opiod used to treat opiate addiction. Suboxone can be used to replace morphine, preventing withdrawal, but without its pain killing and euphoric effects. * Fsociety may be loosely based on the real-life hacker group Anonymous. A loose coalition of hackers, is a leaderless group formed in 2003. They identify themselves by wearing Guy Fawkes masks, which have a similar appearance to fsociety's Monopoly Man mask. One of their primary targets has been the Church of Scientology, which has been subject to protests and hacks. Recent activity has focused on monitoring the activities of ISIS. * Elliot refers to the downfall of the hacker group Omega. This was based on a real group, LulzSec. Best known for the 2011 Sony Pictures hack, its leader, Sabu, eventually helped the FBI locate other group members in exchange for a plea deal. Although the group broke up in June 2011, elements may still be active. * The iconic ferris wheel scene, where Mr. Robot first proposes the hack to Elliot, was an homage to the Orson Welles film The Third Man. Hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, it features Joseph Cotten as an American writer newly arrived in Vienna in search of his friend, Harry Lime (Orson Welles), who he soon learns has just died. As the story progresses, the writer learns Lime is actually alive. Near the end of the film, they meet at a ferris wheel, where the final events play out. * Elliot's use of CDRs to store the results of his hacks is similar to how real-life whistle blower Chelsea Manning (born Bradley Manning) stored the documents leaked to Wikileaks. Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, stored 91,000 sensitive military documents on a CDR labeled "Lady Gaga"; she was eventually convicted of espionage as a result of the theft and subsequent leak. Technology * The fsociety attack on E Corp was a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. In this type of attack, one or more servers are flooded with multiple connections at once, causing them to refuse any new connections. Consequently, the hackers take over most or all connections, denying users access to the server(s). A DDoS attack requires multiple devices accessing the server at once, making the attack harder to track and shut down. These attacks can result in a website crashing for a period of time. * Darlene writes a rootkit as part of the DDoS attack. A rootkit is a piece of stealthy software designed to disguise unwanted or unauthorized programs or activities, preventing cyber-security from detecting them. The rootkit hides the activities of hackers while giving them continued access to their target. * A RUDY (R U Dead Yet?) attack is an attack that slowly incapacitates a server via multiple attacks. * A .dat file is a data file used by database software. * An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a numeric label used to identify each device on a network. Mr Robot instructs Elliott to modify the .dat file to include Colby's IP address. While technically possible to do so, the IP address given is an invalid IPv4 address: 218.108.149.373. The last dot segment (373) is outside the permitted range of 0-255; the sub-net is allocated to Chinahttps://db-ip.com/all/218.108.149. Although the show prides itself on its technical accuracy of the episode, it was not allowed to use a real IP address, thus the incorrect final group of number. * Elliot and Tyrell work in the Linux operating system, an open-code OS favored by hackers. Elliot uses the GNOME desktop interface, whereas Tyrell prefers KDE. Both are free, open-source software that can be used on PCs, but not on Apple computers. When Tyrell tells Elliot he uses KDE, he may be signaling Elliot regarding his skills, or after-hours activities. * To get the information needed to hack Michael Hansen, Dr. Gordon's faithless lover, Elliot uses a social engineering technique known as pretexting. To gather then information he needs, Elliot uses the believable pretext that he works for the Bank of E, and needs information from Hansen to assure his credit card is secure. Marks are frequently trusting of callers who pretend to have legitimate business reasons for asking for this information, and will often reveal details about themselves that a hacker or other con artist can exploit. Music * "If You Go Away" (Ne me quitte pas). Recorded by Neil Diamond (1971), written by Jacques Brel, with English lyrics by Rod McKuen. Plays as Elliot walks though a subway tunnel. The song tells the story of a man, facing the loss of his lover, who gives her reasons to stay, contrasted with what his life will be without her. The song is a romantic representation of Elliot's indecision about becoming involved with fsociety versus remaining isolated. * "New Brave". Recorded by CTZNSHP (2015). Plays during Elliot's session with his therapist, as he remembers going to Angela's birthday party. * "Alone with People". Recorded by Foretaste (year). Plays while Elliot is alone his apartment after he takes Flipper from Mark Hansen. Trivia * Writer/creator Sam Esmail makes a brief cameo appearance in the subway scene where Mr. Robot first appears, standing just above him. * The ferris wheel scene where Mr. Robot proposes Elliot join the hack was the first scene filmed. Malek and Slater spent most of a day on the ferris wheel, which both acknowledge gave them a chance to get to know one another. * The roles of hackers Mobely and Romero were recast following the showing at SXSW, and their scenes reshot. In the original pilot, Mobely was played by Jason Rees, and Romero was played by Michael Buscemi, the brother of actor Steve Buscemi. Rees can still be seen briefly in the final version. * In the original version of the pilot, Elliot's opening monologue is longer. In it, he explains to the audience that he does not believe dinosaurs existed, but does believe in aliens. Roy's Coffee Shop was originally called Phil's, and his dialogue included more of Roy's background. Image Gallery Screencaps Ron's Coffee Shop Screenshot (8).png Screenshot_(12).png Screenshot_(13).png Screenshot_(15).png Screenshot_(20).png Screenshot_(21).png Screenshot_(28).png Screenshot_(29).png Screenshot_(31).png Rons arrest 001.png Rons arrest 002.png Video Gallery Category:Episodes Category:Season Premieres Category:Season 1 Episodes Category:Aired Episodes